Introduction

Compulsive porn users often describe escalation in their porn use that takes the form of greater time viewing or seeking out new genres of porn. New genres that induce shock, surprise, violation of expectations or even anxiety can function to increase sexual arousal, and in porn users whose response to stimuli is growing blunted due to overuse, this phenomenon is extremely common.

The current porn epidemic gives a graphic demonstration that sexual tastes can be acquired. Pornography, delivered by high-speed Internet connections, satisfies every one of the prerequisites for neuroplastic change…. When pornographers boast that they are pushing the envelope by introducing new, harder themes, what they don’t say is that they must, because their customers are building up a tolerance to the content. The back pages of men’s risque magazines and Internet porn sites are filled with ads for Viagra-type drugs—medicine developed for older men with erectile problems related to aging and blocked blood vessels in the penis. Today young men who surf porn are tremendously fearful of impotence, or “erectile dysfunction” as it is euphemistically called. The misleading term implies that these men have a problem in their penises, but the problem is in their heads, in their sexual brain maps. The penis works fine when they use pornography. It rarely occurs to them that there may be a relationship between the pornography they are consuming and their impotence.

In 2012 reddit/nofap produced a member survey, which found that over 60% of its members’ sexual tastes experienced significant escalation, through multiple porn genres.

Q: Did your tastes in pornography change?

My tastes did not change significantly – 29%

My tastes became increasingly extreme or deviant and this caused me to feel shame or stress – 36%

My tastes became increasingly extreme or deviant and this did not cause me to feel shame or stress – 27%

And here’s the 2017 evidence from PornHub that real sex is decreasingly interesting to porn users. Porn isn’t enabling people to find their “real” tastes; it’s driving them beyond normal into extreme novelty and “unreal” genres:

It appears that the trend is moving more toward fantasy than reality. ‘Generic’ porn is being replaced with fantasy specific or scenario specific scenes. Is this as a result of boredom or curiosity? One thing is certain; the typical ‘in-out, in-out’ no longer satisfies the masses, who are clearly looking for something different” notes Dr Laurie Betito.

The only support for the meme that porn users do not escalate comes Ogas and Gaddam’s highly criticized book “A Billion Wicked Thoughts” and their claim that porn viewing tastes remain stable throughout life. Ogas & Gaddam analyzed AOL searches from 2006, over a brief 3-month period. Here’s an excerpt from an Ogi Ogas blog post on Psychology Today:

There is no evidence that viewing porn activates some kind of neural mechanism leading one down a slippery slope of seeking more and more deviant material, and plenty of evidence suggesting that adult men’s sexual interests are stable.

Porn users must be tracked over years to pick up the kinds of changing tastes men are reporting. Three months is insufficient.

Most regular porn users do not use Google to find porn. Instead, they head directly to their favorite tube site. Clicking onto a new genre (located in the sidebar) occurs while the user is masturbating.

The findings also indicated that many men viewed SEM content inconsistent with their stated sexual identity. It was not uncommon for heterosexual-identified men to report viewing SEM containing male same-sex behavior (20.7%) and for gay-identified men to report viewing heterosexual behavior in SEM (55.0%). It was also not uncommon for gay men to report that they viewed vaginal sex with (13.9%) and without a condom (22.7%) during the past 6 months.

This study, taken together with others listed below, debunks the meme that today’s porn users eventually “discover their true sexuality” by surfing tube sites, and then stick to only one genre of porn for the rest of time. The evidence is mounting that streaming digital porn appears to alter sexual tastes in some users, and that this is due to the addiction-related brain change known as habituation or desensitization.

Employing various methodologies and approaches, the following diverse group of studies report habituation to “regular porn” along with escalation into more extreme and unusual genres. A few also report withdrawal symptoms.

Forty-nine percent mentioned at least sometimes searching for sexual content or being involved in OSAs that were not previously interesting to them or that they considered disgusting.

This Belgian study also found problematic Internet porn use was associated with reduced erectile function and reduced overall sexual satisfaction. Yet problematic porn users experienced greater cravings (OSA’s = online sexual activity, which was porn for 99% of subjects). Interestingly, 20.3% of participants said that one motive for their porn use was “to maintain arousal with my partner.” An excerpt:

This study is the first to directly investigate the relationships between sexual dysfunctions and problematic involvement in OSAs. Results indicated that higher sexual desire, lower overall sexual satisfaction, and lower erectile function were associated with problematic OSAs (online sexual activities). These results can be linked to those of previous studies reporting a high level of arousability in association with sexual addiction symptoms (Bancroft & Vukadinovic, 2004; Laier et al., 2013; Muise et al., 2013).

related to high levels of exposure to and experience with sexually explicit materials.

The men experiencing erectile dysfunction had spent a considerable amount of time in bars and bathhouses where porn was “omnipresent,” and “continuously playing.” The researchers stated:

Conversations with the subjects reinforced our idea that in some of them a high exposure to erotica seemed to have resulted in a lower responsivity to “vanilla sex” erotica and an increased need for novelty and variation, in some cases combined with a need for very specific types of stimuli in order to get aroused.

THIRD & FOURTH STUDIES: Both found that deviant (i.e., bestiality or minor) pornography users reported a significantly younger onset of adult pornography use. These studies confirm that early porn use is related to escalation to more extreme material.

The findings of the current study suggest Internet pornography use may follow a Guttman-like progression. In other words, individuals who consume child pornography also consume other forms of pornography, both nondeviant and deviant. For this relationship to be a Guttman-like progression, child pornography use must be more likely to occur after other forms of pornography use. The current study attempted to assess this progression by measuring if the “age of onset” for adult pornography use facilitated the transition from adult-only to deviant pornography use. Based on the results, this progression to deviant pornography use may be affected by the individuals “age of onset” for engaging in adult pornography. As suggested by Quayle and Taylor (2003), child pornography use may be related to desensitization or appetite satiation to which offenders begin collecting more extreme and deviant pornography. The current study suggests individuals who engage in adult pornography use at a younger age may be at greater risk for engaging in other deviant forms of pornography.

Results indicated that adult + deviant pornography users scored significantly higher on openness to experience and reported a significantly younger age of onset for adult pornography use compared to adult-only pornography users.

Finally, the respondents’ self-reported age of onset for adult pornography significantly predicted adult-only vs. adult + deviant pornography use. That is to day, adult + deviant pornography users self-reported a younger age of onset for nondeviant (adult-only) pornography compared to the adult-only pornography users. Overall, these findings support the conclusion drawn by Seigfried-Spellar and Rogers (2013) that Internet pornography use may follow a Guttman-like progression in that deviant pornography use is more likely to occur after the use of nondeviant adult pornography.

FIFTH STUDY:“Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn” (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014) – This Max Planck Institute fMRI study found less grey matter in the reward system (dorsal striatum) correlating with the amount of porn consumed. It also found that more porn use correlated with less reward circuit activation while briefly viewing sexual photos. Researchers believe their findings indicated desensitization, and possibly tolerance, which is the need for greater stimulation to achieve the same level of arousal. Lead author Simone Kühn said the following about her study:

That could mean that regular consumption of pornography more or less wears out your reward system. We assume that subjects with a high porn consumption need increasing stimulation to receive the same amount of reward. That would fit perfectly the hypothesis that their reward systems need growing stimulation.

In a recent study by our group, we recruited healthy male participants and associated their self-reported hours spent with pornographic material with their fMRI response to sexual pictures as well as with their brain morphology (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014). The more hours participants reported consuming pornography, the smaller the BOLD response in left putamen in response to sexual images. Moreover, we found that more hours spent watching pornography was associated with smaller gray matter volume in the striatum, more precisely in the right caudate reaching into the ventral putamen. We speculate that the brain structural volume deficit may reflect the results of tolerance after desensitization to sexual stimuli.

Online explicit stimuli are vast and expanding, and this feature may promote escalation of use in some individuals. For instance, healthy males viewing repeatedly the same explicit film have been found to habituate to the stimulus and find the explicit stimulus as progressively less sexually arousing, less appetitive and less absorbing (Koukounas and Over, 2000). … We show experimentally what is observed clinically that Compulsive Sexual Behavior is characterized by novelty-seeking, conditioning and habituation to sexual stimuli in males.

The researchers found that sex addicts were more likely to choose the novel over the familiar choice for sexual images relative to neutral object images, whereas healthy volunteers were more likely to choose the novel choice for neutral human female images relative to neutral object images.

“We can all relate in some way to searching for novel stimuli online – it could be flitting from one news website to another, or jumping from Facebook to Amazon to YouTube and on,” explains Dr Voon. “For people who show compulsive sexual behaviour, though, this becomes a pattern of behaviour beyond their control, focused on pornographic images.”

In a second task, volunteers were shown pairs of images – an undressed woman and a neutral grey box – both of which were overlaid on different abstract patterns. They learned to associate these abstract images with the images, similar to how the dogs in Pavlov’s famous experiment learnt to associate a ringing bell with food. They were then asked to select between these abstract images and a new abstract image.

This time, the researchers showed that sex addicts where more likely to choose cues (in this case the abstract patterns) associated with sexual and monetary rewards. This supports the notion that apparently innocuous cues in an addict’s environment can ‘trigger’ them to seek out sexual images.

“Cues can be as simple as just opening up their internet browser,” explains Dr Voon. “They can trigger a chain of actions and before they know it, the addict is browsing through pornographic images. Breaking the link between these cues and the behaviour can be extremely challenging.”

The researchers carried out a further test where 20 sex addicts and 20 matched healthy volunteers underwent brain scans while being shown a series of repeated images – an undressed woman, a £1 coin or a neutral grey box.

They found that when the sex addicts viewed the same sexual image repeatedly, compared to the healthy volunteers they experienced a greater decrease of activity in the region of the brain known as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, known to be involved in anticipating rewards and responding to new events. This is consistent with ‘habituation’, where the addict finds the same stimulus less and less rewarding – for example, a coffee drinker may get a caffeine ‘buzz’ from their first cup, but over time the more they drink coffee, the smaller the buzz becomes.

This same habituation effect occurs in healthy males who are repeatedly shown the same porn video. But when they then view a new video, the level of interest and arousal goes back to the original level. This implies that, to prevent habituation, the sex addict would need to seek out a constant supply of new images. In other words, habituation could drive the search for novel images.

“Our findings are particularly relevant in the context of online pornography,” adds Dr Voon. “It’s not clear what triggers sex addiction in the first place and it is likely that some people are more pre-disposed to the addiction than others, but the seemingly endless supply of novel sexual images available online helps feed their addiction, making it more and more difficult to escape.” [emphasis added]

Findings suggest that the key themes are: increased levels of availability of SEM, including an escalation in extreme content (Everywhere You Look) which are seen by young men in this study as having negative effects on sexual attitudes and behaviours (That’s Not Good). Family or sex education may offer some ‘protection’ (Buffers) to the norms young people see in SEM. Data suggests confused views (Real verses Fantasy) around adolescents’ expectations of a healthy sex life (Healthy Sex Life) and appropriate beliefs and behaviours (Knowing Right from Wrong). A potential causal pathway is described and areas of intervention highlighted.

In reality, the findings of Prause et al. 2015 align perfectly with Kühn & Gallinat (2014), which found that more porn use correlated with less brain activation in response to pictures of vanilla porn. Prause et al. findings also align with Banca et al. 2015. Moreover, another EEG study found that greater porn use in women correlated with less brain activation to porn. Lower EEG readings mean that subjects are paying less attention to the pictures. Put simply, frequent porn users were desensitized to static images of vanilla porn. They were bored (habituated or desensitized). See this extensive YBOP critique. Eight peer-reviewed papers agree that this study actually found desensitization/habituation in frequent porn users (consistent with addiction): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Note: Prause proclaimed that her EEG readings assessed “cue-reactivity” (sensitization), rather than habituation. Even if Prause were correct she conveniently ignores the gaping hole in her “falsification” assertion: Even if Prause et al. 2015 had found less cue-reactivity in frequent porn users, 21 other neurological studies have reported cue-reactivity or cravings (sensitization) in compulsive porn users: 1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Science doesn’t go with the lone anomalous study hampered by serious methodological flaws; science goes with the preponderance of evidence (unless you are agenda-driven).

When asked about masturbatory practices, he reported that in the past he had been masturbating vigorously and rapidly while watching pornography since adolescence. The pornography originally consisted mainly of zoophilia, and bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism, but he eventually got habituated to these materials and needed more hardcore pornography scenes, including transgender sex, orgies, and violent sex. He used to buy illegal pornographic movies on violent sex acts and rape and visualized those scenes in his imagination to function sexually with women. He gradually lost his desire and his ability to fantasize and decreased his masturbation frequency.

An excerpt from the paper documents the patient’s recovery from porn-induced sexual problems and fetishes:

In conjunction with weekly sessions with a sex therapist, the patient was instructed to avoid any exposure to sexually explicit material, including videos, newspapers, books, and internet pornography. After 8 months, the patient reported experiencing successful orgasm and ejaculation. He renewed his relationship with that woman, and they gradually succeeded in enjoying good sexual practices.

TENTH STUDY:Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports (2016) is an extensive review of the literature related to porn-induced sexual problems. Authored by US Navy doctors, the review provides the latest data revealing a tremendous rise in youthful sexual problems. It also reviews the neurological studies related to porn addiction and sexual conditioning via Internet porn. The doctors include 3 clinical reports of servicemen who developed porn-induced sexual dysfunctions. Two of the three servicemen healed their sexual dysfunctions by eliminating porn use while the third man experienced little improvement as he was unable to abstain from porn use. Two of the three servicemen reported habituation to current porn and escalation of porn use. The first servicemen describes his habituation to “soft porn” followed by escalation into more graphic and fetish porn:

A 20-year old active duty enlisted Caucasian serviceman presented with difficulties achieving orgasm during intercourse for the previous six months. It first happened while he was deployed overseas. He was masturbating for about an hour without an orgasm, and his penis went flaccid. His difficulties maintaining erection and achieving orgasm continued throughout his deployment. Since his return, he had not been able to ejaculate during intercourse with his fiancée. He could achieve an erection but could not orgasm, and after 10–15 min he would lose his erection, which was not the case prior to his having ED issues.

Patient endorsed masturbating frequently for “years”, and once or twice almost daily for the past couple of years. He endorsed viewing Internet pornography for stimulation. Since he gained access to high-speed Internet, he relied solely on Internet pornography. Initially, “soft porn”, where the content does not necessarily involve actual intercourse, “did the trick”. However, gradually he needed more graphic or fetish material to orgasm. He reported opening multiple videos simultaneously and watching the most stimulating parts. [emphasis added]

The second serviceman describes increased porn use and escalation into more graphic porn. Soon thereafter sex with his wife “not as stimulating as before”:

A 40-year old African American enlisted serviceman with 17 years of continuous active duty presented with difficulty achieving erections for the previous three months. He reported that when he attempted to have sexual intercourse with his wife, he had difficulty achieving an erection and difficulty maintaining it long enough to orgasm. Ever since their youngest child left for college, six months earlier, he had found himself masturbating more often due to increased privacy. He formerly masturbated every other week on average, but that increased to two to three times per week. He had always used Internet pornography, but the more often he used it, the longer it took to orgasm with his usual material. This led to him using more graphic material. Soon thereafter, sex with his wife was “not as stimulating” as before and at times he found his wife “not as attractive”. He denied ever having these issues earlier in the seven years of their marriage. He was having marital issues because his wife suspected he was having an affair, which he adamantly denied. [emphasis added]

Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to one hour of common, nonviolent pornography or to sexually and aggressively innocuous materials in each of six consecutive weeks. Two weeks after this treatment, they were provided with an opportunity to watch videotapes in a private situation. G-rated, R-rated, and X-rated programs were available. Subjects with considerable prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography showed little interest in common, nonviolent pornography, electing to watch uncommon pornography (bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality) instead. Male nonstudents with prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography consumed uncommon pornography almost exclusively. Male students exhibited the same pattern, although somewhat less extreme. This consumption preference was also in evidence in females, but was far less pronounced, especially among female students. [emphasis added]

Age of first exposure to IP was found to be significantly correlated with frequent and addictive IP use (see Table 2). Participants who were exposed to IP at an earlier age were more likely to use IP more frequently, have longer IP sessions,and more likely to score higher on Adapted DSM-5 Internet Pornography Addiction Criteria and CPUI-COMP measures. Finally, total IP exposure was found to be significantly correlated with higher frequency of IP use. Participants who had longer total exposure to IP were also more likely to have more IP sessions per month.

Among frequent users, the most common type of pornography consumed was hard core pornography (71%) followed by lesbian pornography (64%), while soft core pornography was the most commonly selected genre for average (73%) and infrequent users (36%). There was also a difference between the groups in the proportion who watched hard core pornography (71%, 48%, 10%) and violent pornography (14%, 9%, 0%).

The authors suggest that frequent porn may ultimately lead to a preference for hard-core or violent pornography:

It is also noteworthy that a statistically significant relationship was found between fantasizing about pornography several times a week and watching hard core pornography. Since verbal and physical sexual aggression is so commonplace in pornography, what most adolescents considered hard core pornography could likely be defined as violent pornography. If this is the case, and in light of the suggested cyclical nature of sexual preoccupancy in Peter and Valkenburg,it may be that rather than ‘purging’ individuals of their fantasies and inclinations of sexual aggression, watching hard core pornography perpetuates them, thereby increasing the likelihood of manifested sexual aggression

Each question was scored from one to seven on a likert scale: 1- Never, 2- Rarely, 3- Occasionally, 4- Sometimes, 5- Often, 6- Very Often, 7- All the Time. The graph below grouped porn users into 3 categories based on their total scores: “Nonprobelmatic,” “Low risk,” and “At risk.” The yellow line indicates no problems, which means that the “Low risk” and “At risk” porn users reported both tolerance and withdrawal. Put simply, this study actually asked about escalation (tolerance) and withdrawal – and both are reported by some porn users. End of debate.

There is an ongoing debate whether excessive sexual behaviour should be understood as a form of behavioural addiction (Karila, Wéry, Weistein et al., 2014). The present qualitative study aimed at analysing the extent to which out-of-control use of the internet for sexual purposes (OUISP) may be framed by the concept of behavioural addiction among those individuals who were in treatment due to their OUISP.

Methods:

We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants aged 22–54 years (Mage = 34.24 years). Using a thematic analysis, the clinical symptoms of OUISP were analysed with the criteria of behavioural addiction, with the special focus on tolerance and withdrawal symptoms (Griffiths, 2001).

Results:

The dominant problematic behaviour was out-of-control online pornography use (OOPU). Building up tolerance to OOPU manifested itself as an increasing amount of time spent on pornographic websites as well as searching for new and more sexually explicit stimuli within the non-deviant spectrum. Withdrawal symptoms manifested themselves on a psychosomatic level and took the form of searching for alternative sexual objects. Fifteen participants fulfilled all of the addiction criteria.

Conclusions:

The study indicates a usefulness for the behavioural addiction framework

Clinical experience and now research evidence are accumulating to suggest that the Internet is not simply drawing attention to those with existing paedophilic interests, but is contributing to the crystallisation of those interests in people with no explicit prior sexual interest in children.

STUDY SEVENTEEN:How difficult is it to treat delayed ejaculation within a short-term psychosexual model? A case study comparison (2017) – A report on two “composite cases” illustrating the causes and treatments for delayed ejaculation (anorgasmia). “Patient B” represented several young men treated by the therapist. Interestingly, the paper states that Patient B’s “porn use had escalated into harder material”, “as is often the case”. The paper says that porn-related delayed ejaculation is not uncommon, and on the rise. The author calls for more research on porn’s effects of sexual functioning. Patient B’s delayed ejaculation was healed after 10 weeks of no porn. Excerpts related to escalation:

The cases are composite cases taken from my work within the National Health Service in Croydon University Hospital, London. With the latter case (PatientB), it is important to note that the presentation reflects a number of young males who have been referred by their GPs with a similar diagnosis. Patient B is a 19-year-old who presented because he was unable to ejaculate via penetration. When he was 13, he was regularly accessing pornography sites either on his own through internet searches or via links that his friends sent him. He began masturbating every night while searching his phone for image…If he did not masturbate he was unable to sleep. The pornography he was using had escalated, as is often the case (see Hudson-Allez, 2010), into harder material (nothing illegal)…

Patient B was exposed to sexual imagery via pornography from the age of 12 and the pornography he was using had escalated to bondage and dominance by the age of 15.

We agreed that he would no longer use pornography to masturbate. This meant leaving his phone in a different room at night. We agreed that he would masturbate in a different way…. The article calls for research into pornography usage and its effect on masturbation and genital desensitisation.

4.1. Explicit Ratings

Interestingly, the high porn use group rated the erotic images as more unpleasant than the medium use group. The authors suggest this may be due to the relatively “soft-core” nature of the “erotic” images contained in the IAPS database not providing the level of stimulation that they may usually seek out, as it has been shown by Harper and Hodgins [58] that with frequent viewing of pornographic material, many individuals often escalate into viewing more intense material to maintain the same level of physiological arousal. The “pleasant” emotion category saw valence ratings by all three groups to be relatively similar with the high use group rating the images as slightly more unpleasant on average than the other groups. This may again be due to the “pleasant” images presented not being stimulating enough for the individuals in the high use group.Studies have consistently shown a physiological downregulation in processing of appetitive content due to habituation effects in individuals who frequently seek out pornographic material [3,7,8]. It is the authors’ contention that this effect may account for the results observed.

4.3. Startle Reflex Modulation (SRM)

The relative higher amplitude startle effect seen in the low and medium porn use groups may be explained by those in the group intentionally avoiding the use of pornography, as they may find it to be relatively more unpleasant. Alternatively, the results obtained also may be due to a habituation effect, whereby individuals in these groups do watch more pornography than they explicitly stated—possibly due to reasons of embarrassment among others, as habituation effects have been shown to increase startle eye blink responses [41,42].

STUDY NINETEEN: Exploring the Relationship between Sexual Compulsivity and Attentional Bias to Sex-Related Words in a Cohort of Sexually Active Individuals (2017) – This study replicates the findings of this 2014 Cambridge University study that compared the attentional bias of porn addicts to healthy controls. Here’s what’s new: The study correlated the “years of sexual activity” with 1) the sex addiction scores and also 2) the results of the attentional bias task. Among those scoring high on sexual addiction, fewer years of sexual experience were related to greater attentional bias. So higher sexual compulsivity scores + fewer years of sexual experience = greater signs of addiction (greater attentional bias, or interference). But attentional bias declines sharply in the compulsive users, and disappears at the highest number of years of sexual experience. The authors concluded that this result could indicate that more years of “compulsive sexual activity” lead to greater habituation or a general numbing of the pleasure response (desensitization). An excerpt from the conclusion section:

“One possible explanation for these results is that as a sexually compulsive individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, an associated arousal template develops [36–38] and that over time, more extreme behaviour is required for the same level of arousal to be realised. It is further argued that as an individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, neuropathways become desensitized to more ‘normalised’ sexual stimuli or images and individuals turn to more ‘extreme’ stimuli to realise the arousal desired. This is in accordance with work showing that ‘healthy’ males become habituated to explicit stimuli over time and that this habituation is characterised by decreased arousal and appetitive responses [39]. This suggests that more compulsive, sexually active participants have become ‘numb’ or more indifferent to the ‘normalised’ sex-related words used in the present study and as such display decreased attentional bias, while those with increased compulsivity and less experience still showed interference because the stimuli reflect more sensitised cognition.”

Some respondents described a rapid progression of a previously existing compulsive sexual behavior problem, whereas others had no history of sexual addiction but became rapidly involved in an escalating pattern of compulsive cybersex use after they discovered Internet sex. Adverse consequences included depression and other emotional problems, social isolation, worsening of their sexual relationship with spouse or partner, harm done to their marriage or primary relationship, exposure of children to online pornography or masturbation, career loss or decreased job performance, other financial consequences, and in some cases, legal consequences.

One of the examples:

A 30-year-old man with a previous history of “porn, masturbation, and frequent sexual thoughts,” wrote about his cybersex experience: In the last couple of years, the more porn I’ve viewed, the less sensitive I am to certain porn that I used to find offensive. Now I get turned on by some of it (anal sex, women peeing, etc.) The sheer quantity of porn on the Net has done this. It’s so easy to click on certain things out of curiosity in the privacy of your home, and the more you see them, the less sensitized you are. I used to only be into softcore porn showing the beauty of the female form. Now I’m into explicit hardcore.

In this study participants were asked about their sexual arousal related to 27 genres (themes) of porn. Why the researchers chose these 27 particular genres is known only to them. How they determined which genres were “mainstream” which were “non-mainstream” also remains a mystery, given their seemingly random categorization. (See the researchers’ arbitrary categorization porn genres.)

No matter, this study debunks the claim that porn users like only a narrow range of genres. While it doesn’t directly ask about escalation over time, the study found that subjects they categorized as “non-mainstream” porn viewers like many different types of porn . A few relevant excerpts:

The findings suggest that in classified non-mainstream Sexually Explicit Media [porn] groups, patterns of sexual arousal might be less fixated and category specific than previously assumed.

Particularly for heterosexual men and non-heterosexual women, who were characterized by substantial levels of sexual arousal to non-mainstream SEM themes, the findings suggest that patterns of sexual arousal induced by SEM in non-laboratory settings might be more versatile, less fixed, and less category specific than previously assumed. This supports a more generalized SEM arousability and indicates that non-mainstream SEM group participants also are aroused by more mainstream (“vanilla”) themes.

The study is saying that so-called “non-mainstream porn viewers” are aroused by all sorts of porn, whether it’s so-called “mainstream” (Bukkake, Orgy, Fist-fucking) or so-called “non-mainstream” (Sadomasochism, Latex). This finding debunks the often repeated meme that frequent porn users stick to one type of porn. (An example of the unfounded claim about “fixed” tastes is Ogas and Gaddam’s highly criticized book A Billion Wicked Thoughts.)

Most previous studies have relied on small clinical samples. The present study presents a new method for assessing sex addiction—the Bergen–Yale Sex Addiction Scale (BYSAS)—based on established addiction components (i.e., salience/craving, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict/problems, and relapse/loss of control).

The authors expand on the six established addiction components assessed, including tolerance and withdrawal.

The BYSAS was developed utilizing the six addiction criteria emphasized by Brown (1993), Griffiths (2005), and American Psychiatric Association (2013) encompassing salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflicts and relapse/loss of control…. In relation to sex addiction, these symptoms would be: salience/craving—over-preoccupation with sex or wanting sex, mood modification—excessive sex causing changes in mood, tolerance—increasing amounts of sex over time, withdrawal—unpleasant emotional/physical symptoms when not having sex, conflict—inter-/intrapersonal problems as a direct result of excessive sex, relapse—returning to previous patterns after periods with abstinence/control, and problems—impaired health and well-being arising from addictive sexual behavior.

The most prevalent “sex addiction” components seen in the subjects were salience/craving and tolerance, but the other components, including withdrawal, also showed up to a lesser degree:

Salience/craving and tolerance were more frequently endorsed in the higher rating category than other items, and these items had the highest factor loadings. This seems reasonable as these reflect less severe symptoms (e.g., question about depression: people score higher on feeling depressed, then they plan committing suicide). This may also reflect a distinction between engagement and addiction (often seen in the game addiction field)—where items tapping information about salience, craving, tolerance, and mood modification are argued to reflect engagement, whereas items tapping withdrawal, relapse and conflict more measure addiction. Another explanation could be that salience, craving, and tolerance may be more relevant and prominent in behavioral addictions than withdrawal and relapse.

This study, along with the 2017 study that developed and validated the “Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale,” refutes the often-repeated claim that porn and sex addicts do not experience either tolerance or withdrawal symptoms.

It is well known that adolescents use the Internet for sexual purposes, for example viewing sexually explicit materials, a practice which increases with age. Prior research has suggested a link between cognitive and behavioral effects on the one hand and viewing sexually explicit materials on the Internet on the other. The present study aimed to explore exposure to sexually explicit materials on the Internet and a possible desensitizing effect on the perception of online sexual content over time. The study design was longitudinal; data were collected in 3 waves at 6 months intervals starting in 2012. The sample included 1134 respondents (girls, 58.8%; mean age, 13.84 ± 1.94 years) from 55 schools. A multivariate growth model was used for analyzing data.

The results showed that the respondents changed their perception of sexually explicit material on the Internet over time depending on age, frequency of exposure and whether exposure was intentional. They became desensitized in terms of being less bothered by the sexual content. The results may indicate a normalization of sexually explicit material on the Internet during adolescence.

All patients suffered from recurrent sexual fantasies/behaviors and admitted that their sexual behavior resulted in the mishandling of important life duties. All patients noticed a gradual progression of the problem and admitted using sexual behaviors (mostly pornography viewing accompanied by masturbation) to cope with stressful life events. Each of the patients reported multiple attempts to limit or terminate CSB. Usually, effects were poor and temporary, but some reported longer periods of sexual abstinence (several months up to 1 year) followed by relapses.

Similarly, tolerance can also develop to pornography. After prolonged consumption of pornography, excitatory responses to pornography diminish; the repulsion evoked by common pornography fades and may be lost with prolonged consumption (Zillman, 1989). Thus, what initially led to an excitatory response does not necessarily lead to the same level of enjoyment of the frequently consumed material. There-fore, what aroused an individual initially may not arouse them in the later stages of their addiction. Because they do not achieve satisfaction or have the repulsion they once did, individuals addicted to pornography generally seek increasingly novel forms of pornography to achieve the same excitatory result.

For example, pornography addiction may begin with non-pornographic but provocative images and can then progress to more sexually explicit mages. As arousal diminishes with each use, an addicted individual may move on to more graphic forms of sexual images and erotica. As arousal again diminishes, the pattern continues to incorporate increasingly graphic, titillating, and detailed depictions of sexual activity through the various forms of media. Zillman (1989) states that prolonged pornography use can foster a preference for pornography featuring less common forms of sexuality (e.g., violence),and may alter perceptions of sexuality. Although this pattern typifies what one would expect to see with pornography addiction, not all pornography users experience this cascade into an addiction.

Withdrawal symptoms from pornography use may include depression, irritability, anxiety, obsessive thoughts, and an intense longing for pornography. Due to these often intense withdrawal symptoms, cessation from this reinforcement can be extremely difficult for both the individual and the couple’s relationship.

STUDY TWENTY SIX: Consequences of Pornography Use (2017) – This study asked if internet users experienced anxiety when they couldn’t access porn on the internet (a sign of withdrawal symptoms): 24% experienced anxiety. One third of the participants had suffered negative consequences related to their porn use. Excerpts:

The objective of this study is to obtain a scientific and empirical approximation to the type of consumption of the Spanish population, the time they use in such consumption, the negative impact it has on the person and how anxiety is affected when it is not possible to access to it. The study has a sample of Spanish internet users (N = 2.408). An 8-item survey was developed through an online platform that provides information and psychological counselling on the harmful consequences of pornography consumption. To reach diffusion among the Spanish population, the survey was promoted through social networks and media.

The results show that one third of the participants had suffered negative consequences in family, social, academic or work environment. In addition, 33% spent more than 5 hours connected for sexual purposes, using pornography as a reward and 24% had anxiety symptoms if they could not connect.

Progression from legal material. For nine participants, their CP offending appeared to be the result of prolonged exposure and potential desensitation to legal pornography. Some participants provided fairly detailed responses of their journey:

“The gradual escalation from normal adult material to more extreme material (dehumanising) after first accessing the internet, that I used it to cope with emotional and stressful situations. Followed by viewing younger and younger woman, girls and preteen, i.e. child modeling [sic] and cartoons showing extreme adult and other abusive subject matter. (Case 5164)”

Again, some of the responses clearly linked back to a developing sexual interest in children, based on increasing exposure to the material…. Overall, this theme shared some similarities with the previous theme in that CP, used as a source of sexual satisfaction, acts as a potential stress reliever. However, for offenders belonging to this thematic group, CP had been approached via progression through other forms of pornography, which may still be used.

A total of 83.3% of junior high school adolescents in Pontianak City have exposed to pornography, and from being exposed as many as 79.5% experience the effects of exposure to pornography. Teenagers who experience the effects of exposure to pornography as much as 19.8% were in the addiction stage, from adolescents the 69.2% addiction is at the escalation stage, from which escalation of 61.1% is at the desensitization stage, and from the 31.8% desensitization was at the stage of act out.

Pornography can affect teens to do shape behavior, consciously or unconsciously, has changing perceptions and even the behavior of adolescent life daily especially in terms of sexuality The results of this study show that as many as 52 (19.78%) of junior high school students in Pontianak City has experienced the effects of exposure to pornography is on stage addiction.

The next change in attitude or behavior is escalation. The results showed 36 people (69.2%) of 52 adolescents who are addicted to the stage escalation / increased needs. After all this time consume pornography, adolescents who are hooked will experienced an increase in the need for sex material which is heavier, more explicit, more sensational and more distorted than previously consumed. This increase in demand is not in terms of quantity but especially the quality of which is increasingly explicit, then it is will be more satisfied. If before he had enough satisfied watching the image of a woman naked, then want to see a movie that contains a sex scene. Once saturated, he wants to see that sex scene different ones that are sometimes more wild and distorted than which he had seen. Also in accordance with the results study Zillman & Bryant (1982, in Thornburgh & Herbert, 2002) which states that when someone is exposed to repeated pornography, they are will show a tendency to have distorted perceptions of sexuality also occur increased need for more pornographic types hard and distorted.

The next stage of desensitization has been experienced by 22 people (61.11%) teenagers from 36 people who experiencing stage escalation. At this stage, sex material which was taboo, immoral and degrading/humiliating human dignity, gradually considered to be something that is considered normal which means the longer it becomes insensitive again.

The results of this study further found from 22 people in the desensitization stage exist as many as 7 people (31.8%) are in actout stage. At this stage there is a tendency to engage in sexual behavior such as pornography he has been watching for real life

STUDY TWENTY NINE: “Clinical encounters with internet pornography” (2008)– Comprehensive paper, with four clinical cases, written by a psychiatrist who became aware of the negative effects internet porn was having on some of his male patients. The excerpt below describes a 31 year old man who escalated into extreme porn and developed porn-induced sexual tastes and sexual problems. This is one of the first peer-reviewed papers to depict porn use leading to tolerance, escalation, and sexual dysfunctions.

A 31-year-old male in analytic psychotherapy for mixed anxiety problems reported that he was experiencing difficulty becoming sexually aroused by his current partner. After much discussion about the woman, their relationship, possible latent conflicts or repressed emotional content (without arriving at a satisfactory explanation for his complaint), he provided the detail that he was relying on a particular fantasy to become aroused. Somewhat chagrined, he described a “scene” of an orgy involving several men and women that he had found on an Internet pornography site that had caught his fancy and become one of his favorites. Over the course of several sessions, he elaborated upon his use of Internet pornography, an activity in which he had engaged sporadically since his mid-20s. Relevant details about his use and the effects over time included clear descriptions of an increasing reliance on viewing and then recalling pornographic images in order to become sexually aroused. He also described the development of a “tolerance” to the arousing effects of any particular material after a period of time, which was followed by a search for new material with which he could achieve the prior, desired level of sexual arousal.

As we reviewed his use of pornography, it became evident that the arousal problems with his current partner coincided with use of pornography, whereas his “tolerance” to the stimulating effects of particular material occurred whether or not he was involved with a partner at the time or was simply using pornography for masturbation. His anxiety about sexual performance contributed to his reliance on viewing pornography. Unaware that the use itself had become problematic, he had interpreted his waning sexual interest in a partner to mean that she was not right for him, and had not had a relationship of greater than two months’ duration in over seven years, exchanging one partner for another just as he might change websites.

He also noted that he now could be aroused by pornographic material that he once had no interest in using. For example, he noted that five years ago he had little interest in viewing images of anal intercourse but now found such material stimulating. Similarly, material that he described as “edgier,” by which he meant “almost violent or coercive,” was something that now elicited a sexual response from him, whereas such material had been of no interest and was even off-putting. With some of these new subjects, he found himself anxious and uncomfortable even as he would become aroused.

In addition, participants talked about the ever increasing levels of extremity within SEM content online. SEM could therefore be seen as an influential force in the moulding of more extreme sexual preferences.

“due to the ever increasing availability of porn, the videos are becoming more and more adventurous and shocking in order to keep up with the demand for it to still be deemed exciting”. – Jay

“It has probably made me case hardened. It takes a lot to shock me now, Because of the amount I have seen it doesn’t affect me as much as it used to” – Tom

To test the spectrum hypothesis and to have comparable symptoms for each technology-mediated behavior, the first and the last author linked each scale item with the following “classical” addiction symptoms: continued use, mood modification, loss of control, preoccupation, withdrawal, and consequences technology-mediated addictive behaviors were investigated using symptoms derived from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) and the component model of addiction: Internet, smartphone, gaming, and cybersex.

Between-conditions edges often connected the same symptoms through Internet addiction symptoms. For example, Internet addiction withdrawal symptoms were connected with withdrawal symptoms of all other conditions (gaming addiction, smartphone addiction, and cybersex addiction) and adverse consequences of Internet addiction were also connected with adverse consequences of all other conditions.

STUDY THIRTY TWO: Sexual Interests of Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) Consumers: Four Patterns of Severity Over Time (2018) – Study analyzed the evolution over time of the activity of consumers of child porn, using data extracted from the hard drives of 40 convicted individuals. Found that the most prevalent pattern was a drop in age of the person depicted and a rise in the extremeness of the sexual acts. The researchers discuss habituation and escalation, as well as the literature demonstrating that porn collectors have escalated to more extreme sexual interests than contact offenders. Excerpts:

37.5% of the collections exhibited increased severity in terms of both age and COPINE [extremeness] score: The children depicted became younger, and the acts became more extreme.

… [A second pattern was] exemplified by … an increase in the COPINE [extremeness] score and in the age of the subjects…. This pattern was present in [an additional] 20%.

… It should be noted that all the child pornography collections included mainstream pornography content.

… A second explanation that is also related to the sexual interest explanation is that collectors become habituated to low-severity pornography, which is congruent with the patterns 1, 2, and 3 of the current study. It has been suggested that habituation to pornographic content leads to boredom, which in turn impels the pornography consumer to seek out new content that is more severe…. Thus, to maintain their degree of sexual arousal, child-pornography collectors may be driven to explore other age categories and sexual acts.

…During masturbatory activities, CSEM collectors have the possibility of exploring a wider range of sexual interests than offline sexual offenders, who are limited by the availability of victims. Consequently, they may become motivated to search for new illegal content to nourish their sexual fantasies. This explanation is in agreement with Babchishin et al.’s (2015) meta-analysis, which reveals that online offenders have more deviant sexual interests than offline offenders.

Scores on pornography consumption were introduced as covariate in the analysis pertaining the automatic attention task because the task may have been influenced by the habituation to sexually explicit stimuli.

Findings revealed that sexually explicit pictures yielded more automatic attention capture. However, this effect was superseded by pornography consumption, which likely reflects a habituation mechanism

These findings align with the Sexual Content Induced Delay, an effect that has been consistently reported in literature and shows that individuals present delayed responses when exposed to sexual stimuli—therefore signaling an attentional bias toward sexual stimuli—as compared with other types of stimuli. However, the introduction of pornography consumption as covariate reduced the impact of the sexually explicit pictures (to the level of nonstatistical significance), thus revealing a habituation mechanism in automatic attention to erotic stimuli.

This paper explores the phenomenon of pornography induced erectile dysfunction (PIED), meaning sexual potency problems in men due to Internet pornography consumption. Empirical data from men who suffer from this condition have been collected…. they report that an early introduction to pornography (usually during adolescence) is followed by daily consumption until a point is reached where extreme content (involving, for example, elements of violence) is needed to maintain arousal.A critical stage is reached when sexual arousal is exclusively associated with extreme and fast-paced pornography, rendering physical intercourse bland and uninteresting. This results in an inability to maintain an erection with a real-life partner, at which point the men embark on a “re-boot” process, giving up pornography. This has helped some of the men to regain their ability to achieve and sustain an erection.

Introduction to the results section:

Having processed the data, I have noticed certain patterns and recurring themes, following a chronological narrative in all of the interviews. These are: Introduction. One is first introduced to pornography, usually before puberty. Building a habit. One begins to consume pornography regularly. Escalation. One turns to more “extreme” forms of pornography, content-wise, in order to achieve the same effects previously achieved through less “extreme” forms of pornography.Realization. One notices sexual potency problems believed to be caused by pornography use. “Re-boot” process. One tries to regulate pornography use or eliminate it completely in order to regain one’s sexual potency. The data from the interviews are presented based on the above outline.

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

[…] But neither is true. Recent research shows that half of internet porn users report escalating to material that they once found uninteresting or repellent. Research also shows that among today’s porn users, 21% of straight-identified men view same-sex porn, and 55% of gay-identified porn view hetero porn. So much for the belief that you find your niche and settle in. Employing various methodologies and approaches over 20 studies have reported habituation to “regular porn” along with escalation into more extr… […]